Jeff Metcalfe, The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. I cover Arizona State baseball and women's basketball plus Olympic sports.I grew up in Sterling, Ill., and attended the University of Illinois. I worked in Colorado Springs for a decade after graduating until coming to Phoenix in 1985.

I've covered ASU sports since then as well as the Olympics. I've covered 11 Olympic Games. I live in Mesa and I'm big into running and cycling although it's harder to make time for the bike since becoming a father and carting my son to band, soccer and theatre.

With the Stanford-Connecticut women's basketball showdown still more than two weeks away, the No. 1 Cardinal continue to hold a 10-point lead over the No. 2 Huskies in the Associated Press top 25.

Not that there aren't some interesting games for Stanford before hosting UConn on Dec. 29.

The Cardinal are home to a respectable Pacific team on Saturday then are at No. 24 South Carolina on Dec. 19 and No. 13 Tennessee on Dec. 22. UConn, with wins last week over No. 10 Maryland and No. 11 Penn State, is home to Oakland on Dec. 19 and at Hartford on Dec. 22.

No. 3 Baylor, which lost 71-69 to Stanford on Nov. 16 and beat No. 5 Notre Dame last week, is home to Oral Roberts on Wednesday and Tennessee on Dec. 18. The Bears will face plenty of challenges in the Big 12, the nation's top-ranked conference (Sagarin ratings). Other Big 12 top-25 teams are No. 12 Oklahoma, No. 16 Oklahoma State, No. 18 Texas, No. 22 Kansas and No. 25 West Virginia with Iowa State fourth among other receiving votes. On top of that, Baylor is at UConn on Feb. 18.

Arizona State, off a road sweep of Providence and Boston College, is above .500 for the first time at 5-4. The Sun Devils host San Diego at 11 a.m. Wednesday in a field trip game for elementary school students then Longwood on Dec. 22 and Idaho State on Dec. 30 before starting Pac-12 play at Washington on Jan. 4.

If ASU goes 8-4 in non-conference play, it essentially must win two-thirds of its Pac-12 games to get into the NCAA Tournament. In addition to Stanford, top-25 Pac-12 teams are No. 9 California and No. 14 UCLA. The Sun Devils play Stanford and Cal just once this season, on the road.

Northern Illinois is not going away.

Not the Huskies per se after their first BCS appearance in the Orange Bowl. But what they represent, the so-called Group of Five -- I guess Five Guys was already taken -- conferences who are guaranteed one berth in the new college football playoff system starting in 2014.

The top team from the Big East, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West and Sun Belt conferences will play in one of six bowl games whose participants will be determined by a selection committee with representatives from each of 11 Football Bowl Division conferences and independents.

So in mapping this year's teams into the new structure, which includes two semifinals ahead of a national championship game, No. 15 Northern Illinois would make the postseason top tier and No. 21 Louisville would not. They are both in Bowl Championship Series bowls this season because the MAC champion (NIU) is among the top 16 and higher ranked than the champion of an automatic qualifying conference (Louisville from the Big East).

The Sugar, Orange and Rose bowls will be contract bowls in the new system that will continues through the 2025 season. The Fiesta, Cotton and Chick-fil-A bowls are expected to be chosen in the spring as host bowls -- without conference contracts -- and be among the six bowls that will host national semifinals on a rotating basis. The championship game will be bid out separately like a Super Bowl or basketball Final Four.

If, for example, the Fiesta and Chick-fil-A bowls were hosting semifinals this season then one would get No. 1 Notre Dame vs. No. 4 Oregon and the other No. 2 Alabama vs. No. 3 Florida. One proposal for deciding which semifinal is played where is to give the top-seeded team choice of site, thus preventing a No. 4 seed from having a mostly home advantage.

Other major bowls in that scenario would be No. 5 Kansas State (Big 12 champion) vs. No. 7 Georgia (top SEC not in the semifinals) in the Sugar, No. 6 Stanford (Pac-12 champion, not in semifinals) vs. Wisconsin (Big Ten champion) in the Rose, No. 8 LSU (some years a Big Ten team or Notre Dame) vs. No. 12 Florida State (ACC champion) in the Orange and No. 9 Texas A&M (at-large) vs. Northern Illinois (automatic qualifier from Group of Five) in the Cotton.

Under the BCS system this season, we will get No. 1 Notre Dame vs. No. 2 Alabama in the championship game, No. 3 Florida vs. No. 21 Louisville in the Sugar, No. 4 Oregon vs. No. 5 Kansas State in the Fiesta, No. 6 Stanford vs. Wisconsin in the Rose and No. 12 Florida State vs. No. 15 Northern Illinois in the Orange.

The new system creates room for Georgia, LSU and Texas A&M in the top tier while evicting Louisville since the Big East loses its sole automatic berth. No. 10 South Carolina and No. 11 Oklahoma are left out of both. Unranked Wisconsin gets in both as Big Ten title game champion.

Much will depend on who is hosting the semifinals. If in the earlier scenario, the Rose was a semifinal host instead of the Fiesta then Stanford and Wisconsin likely would be sent to Arizona by the selection committee. That group is expected to work off some published rankings akin to the current BCS standings although the details are yet to be finalized.

ESPN will televise the championship game, semifinals and four other major bowls in the new system under a recent 12-year deal worth an estimated $470 million annually. ESPN currently pays $125 million per year for rights to the Fiesta, Sugar and Orange bowls and BCS Championship Game.

Dayton women's basketball, after escaping with a 65-59 win over Arizona State on Sunday, moves up four places to No. 19 in this week's Associated Press top 25.

The Flyers (9-0) trailed by as many as 14 points early in the second half of the ASU Classic title game and were down by eight, 57-49, with 6:17 remaining. But the Sun Devils missed five important free throws down the stretch, helping Dayton to finish the game on a 16-2 run and win despite trailing almost the entire game.

ASU (3-4) is No. 26 in Sagarin strength of schedule and will have a chance to win its five remaining non-conference games: at Providence (2-5) on Friday, at Boston College (5-3) on Sunday, San Diego (4-1) on Dec. 12, Longwood (1-6) on Dec. 22 and Idaho State (3-3) on Dec. 30. To do so would boost the Sun Devils to 8-4 going into Pac-12 play, where the toughest competition will be No. 1 Stanford, No. 11 California and No. 17 UCLA.

ASU plays only once, on the road, against California and Stanford and is at home for its only meetings with Oregon and Oregon State. There are 18 Pac-12 regular-season games before the conference tournament, March 7-10 at its new home in Seattle.

St. John's dropped from No. 17 out of the top 25 in part due to a season-ending injury. West Virginia also was bumped out from No. 25 to first among others receiving votes. Miami and Florida State move into the poll at No. 23 and 24.

Jason Watson was Brigham Young's volleyball coach in 2007 when the Cougars reached the Elite Eight before losing to eventual national champion Penn State.

Lisa Love, former USC volleyball coach, then hired Watson to rebuild Arizona State volleyball and gave him a contract extension through December 2016 before losing her job as ASU athletic director. Watson had yet to have a winning season at ASU when his extension was approved in fall 2011 then his fourth team plunged to 9-22, the second worst winning percentage (.290) in school history.

But Love knew the caliber of players committed to play for Watson and believed he deserved time to coach elite recruits such as Macey Gardner and Allison Palmer. Those freshmen combined with senior Erica Wilson and others fast-forwarded ASU to 20 wins (.581 winning percentage) this season and into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2006.

And where were the Sun Devils sent for the postseason? To Provo, Utah, where BYU is back in the postseason for the first time since Watson left.

No. 12-seeded BYU (26-3) and ASU (20-13) would meet in the second round Saturday if they win Friday over New Mexico State (22-10) and Oklahoma (21-10). "We've got to get past a nice Oklahoma team before worrying about any other subplots," Watson said.

Beating the favored Sooners, making their fourth straight NCAA appearance and sixth in the last seven years, won't be easy. Their edge in postseason experience is somewhat negated by ASU going through the Pac-12 gauntlet that includes five of the 16 NCAA seeds: No. 2 Stanford, No. 5 Oregon, No. 6 USC, No. 7 UCLA and No. 13 Washington. The Sun Devils have wins over USC and Washington and a narrow loss at Oregon.

"We know what kind of competition there's going to be," Wilson said. "It's just like the teams we play every day. I think they have prepared us for the tournament."

ASU has struggled at times, though, against opponents with a left-handed hitter on the right side like Oklahoma's Morgan Reynolds. And at 6-2, Sooners' freshman Julia Doyle is a bigger and more offensive-minded setter than most in the Pac-12.

"They're physical and remind a lot of an Arizona or Utah," Watson said. "They're going to block a lot of balls and their libero (Maria Fernanda) is really good too."

Oklahoma's top hitter is middle blocker Sallie McLaurin, who made All-Big 12. Doyle and middle blocker Kierra Holst are on the Big 12 All-Freshman team. Gardner made All Pac-12 for ASU and along with Palmer is on the All-Freshman team.

At 5-9, setter Palmer can be a liability at times in the front row that Oklahoma will try to exploit.

"I've been impressed with our ability to play around Allison's block," Watson said. "Nora (Tuioti-Mariner) is playing really well and Stephanie (Preach) of course. Teams with 6-2 setters don't have to have the same kind of defensive strategy."

ASU lost to Utah -- notably with a lefty opposite hitter -- for the second time on Nov. 16 then had to beat Colorado, Washington on the road and UA to clinch a postseason berth. Oklahoma finished the regular season with a 3-1 win over Kansas State but also has recent 3-0 losses to Iowa State and Kansas. ASU lost 3-1 to Kansas on Sept. 7 when the Sun Devils were not playing nearly as well as they are now.

Arizona State and Grand Canyon could resume their once regular baseball series as soon as 2014 given the Antelopes' move back into Division I.

Grand Canyon was Division I in baseball for most of the 1990s, playing in the Western Athletic Conference that is is returning to in all sports. Former coaches Jim Brock (ASU) and Gil Stafford (GCU) played each other almost every season home and away through 1998, the Antelopes' final D1 baseball season.

The cross-town schools met as recently as 2010. ASU leads the series 87-22.

ASU is a five-time College World Series champion. Grand Canyon is a four-time NAIA national champion, winning three of those under Stafford.

ASU coach Tim Esmay said Tuesday he already has talked with Antelopes coach Andy Stankiewicz about scheduling once Grand Canyon can count as a D1 opponent for ratings percentage index and strength of schedule purposes. "I can pretty much guarantee we'll play every year," said Esmay, who said he has a scar to show from the intensity of games against Grand Canyon when he was a player at ASU. "I think we could have a neat little baseball triangle," of ASU, Arizona and Grand Canyon.

Esmay was a Grand Canyon assistant coach in 1995. Stankiewicz was an ASU assistant from 2007-09 and his son Drew is expected to be the Sun Devils' starting shortstop this season.

Stanford remains No. 1 for a second consecutive week in the Associated Press women's basketball top 25, again by a nine-vote margin over Connecticut.

Defending national champion Baylor still is third. First-place votes are the same as last week after Baylor lost to Stanford: Stanford with 21, UConn 17 and Baylor 1. Patrick Ochs of the Oxford (Miss.) Eagle still is hanging with the Bears at No. 1.

The top nine are unchanged with California moving up one place to No. 10, exchanging places with Maryland. UCLA, despite a loss to No. 5 Notre Dame, remains at No. 19.

West Virginia dropped from No. 12 to 25 after losses to LSU and Iowa. Vanderbilt, previously No. 17, fell out because of losses to Virginia and Florida State.

Dayton moved up one place to No. 23 and plays in the ASU Classic on Saturday and Sunday. The Flyers (6-0) host Wright State on Wednesday then play UNLV in Tempe on Saturday. ASU (2-3) plays Binghamton on Saturday then either Dayton or UNLV on Sunday.

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